The Olympic Trials: before, during and after

Training Recap between Jacksonville and the OT:

I think when considering training it’s very important to look at context. Looking at the marathon from my point of view, I was very much overtrained on the speed end of things – my overarching goal for months had been to run 4:55 pace for  as long as possible, after all. With that in mind I neglected all training that was significantly faster than goal marathon pace, which I estimated as 5:20 miles. In the four real training weeks between the two races, I got in the following:

• 3 moderate to high quality long runs:
• 20 miler including 7 miles at MP during the back half
• 21 miles steady pace, averaging 5:40s on a rolling paved loop
• 24 miles progressing throughout, averaging 6:00 with the last 4-5 miles being 5:30-5:40

4 specific marathon-pace tempo runs or alternating pace workouts:     

• 15 miles done as 3 x [4 miles @ 5:20 + 1 mile @ 5:40] for a total time of 1:21 (5:24 avg)
• 12 miles alternating miles faster and slower than MP
• 11 miles run by feel averaging 5:24
• 8 miles in 41 minutes 9 days out (last hard workout)

Obviously in a perfect world I would have been able to get in even higher volume workouts – I don’t count many of those as being truly marathon specific. However because I only had 4 weeks I knew that was the best I could do in the situation. I also ran twice a day essentially every day and got my highest volume weeks ever with a couple in the 120 range.

Olympic Trials Race Recap:

Obviously with dropping out at around 14 miles the race did not go well. This will more be about trying to explain my rationale than actually recapping the race, which I will do briefly:

I was thirsty from essentially the beginning despite drinking all morning consistently and about as much as I could without feeling bloated. The pace never felt comfortable and after coming through 5 miles at 5:20s I decided to slow down a bit and try to feel better. Despite backing off I felt worse every mile and after mile 11 I was running 6:00 pace and had been alone for some time. By mile 13 I had run a couple 6 minute miles in a row and was continuing to feel worse. Once I saw my friends I stopped to say hi and that I was stopping at the end of the current loop.

The race started at 10 am and the official weather readings do not tell the fully story. More telling are the finish times and the attrition rate:

• 166 men started, 105 finished
• 18 men broke 2:19, the qualifying standard to which all men should have been capable of

There is a long thread on Letsrun that started as one guy wondering how anyone could DNF the Trials and look themselves in the mirror after that. It turned into a fairly well balanced discussion, but reminded me a lot of when people argue about religious views – clearly no one was going to convince someone on the other side of their viewpoint and the endgame was guaranteed to be “agree to disagree.” I did not contribute, but since I DNF’d it should be clear that I side with the people who don’t think that it’s morally reprehensible to do so. The clear difference that I saw was that many of the people criticizing the choice to DNF were not elite, and qualified themselves as such. One guy who dropped out had this to say:

“A couple posters question the ethics of dropping out of a race, which seems strange to me as an elite runner. There's not "honor" in just finishing. No one really cares about what you're doing besides you. I could have walked the last 6 miles, but I didn't want to. I considered that more embarrassing than dropping out. Please don't apply your honorable code of ethics to a level of running you don't understand…I race marathons, you complete them. They are essentially different sports.”

The knee-jerk reaction to that last bit is to call this guy “elitist.” Well you know what? In this case that is a correct label! By definition he is an elite who is in a different league than almost all of the people criticizing his decision. I agree with this logic and probably would try to soften the language if pressed to explain it in person. Another person had this to say:

“In a perfect world, a lot more than 20 years down the road, I would rather not have to tell my grandkids I dropped out. But I live in the real world and dropping out is a calculated decision. I'd rather drop out than do long term damage or get injured pursuing a crappy result. Especially if I can get a good result in a spring marathon that would not have been possible otherwise. The runners who dropped out don't take doing so lightly but understand a DNF does not show a character flaw or lack of commitment, toughness, whatever the uniformed on this thread are suggesting.”

To me it was a simple decision. There was no value or “face” to save by slogging out a 2:40 marathon or worse – just completing a marathon is not my goal. I can go run a 2:40 marathon any weekend I choose by myself – I essentially ran that or faster 2 weekends prior to this in training. My goal in running is to run fast and beat people. Neither of which I was going to be able to do. I am not a masochist and I have no desire to metaphorically kill myself just to be able to tell other people (who know nothing about running) that I finished a race miserably and took myself out of commission for who knows how long. My self-esteem does not depend on what hobby joggers or nonathletes think of my results – let them look down their noses at a DNF if they want.

I only went to this race because this was the Olympic Trials.I would not have signed up to seriously run the LA Marathon the next day. I know there are better opportunities to run fast and I am not in the business of training hard to throw it away because of weather or any other factor. If I were in the hunt of making money at this race it would have been a different story, but I am not in that league and, again, there was nothing to be gained from brute-forcing my way to a terrible time.

Where to go from here: spring 2016

Now that that’s over and I’m not too beat up by the experience, I can look ahead at some spring races. Emily already has some good races lined up, so for the sake of convenience I will likely piggyback on her schedule, while adding some money races when I find them:

•           Club Challenge (low-key 10 miler for the Falls Road group), 2/27
•           Tim Kennard 10 miler (low key race with the group, has a bit of money), 3/6
•           St. Patty’s day 5k in Baltimore (has a bit of money), 3/13
•           Cherry Blossom, 4/3
•           Broad Street, 5/1

In terms of the training, I want to get back to basics. More general fitness training and less super-specific work, although I will be generally focusing on the 10 miler distance because I know I can race well over shorter stuff while doing strength work. It will be a good opportunity to maintain the fitness I’ve gained from half- and full-marathon training while bringing back a bit of the speedwork I’ve neglected.

Because I've basically been training very hard for big races non-stop since June, I will take this spring as a time to back off a little and mentally recharge a bit. Cherry Blossom and Broad Street are big races, but compared to pushing for an OTQ and then actually going to the Trials, they will be more low key and less of a pressure environment. I think it will be a fun spring.